That is who you are. That is what you call us to do as the Body of Christ. Compassion is what we display when we have become one with you. Compassion is the road to living fully, eternally. Compassion is the way by which we too will be raised. However, there are tim.

Saturday, February 18, 2012. This sermon was preached at a contemporary service of Holy Communion for a mixed-aged Midwestern congregation.

Sacred Stories from around the Globe. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Book 1, Chapter 6, Paragraph 1, John Calvin introduces the idea that the scriptures serve as a lens through which Christians view the world. Although that imagery is useful, I argue that it is simplistic. As Christ shows in Matthew 5, he himself is the lens through which we ought to view all the rest of the scriptures.

The way home is not the way back. Be careful not to stare into the wrong eyes. I was in the Istanbul airport this summer, standing at Passport Control, while a uniformed officer went through my papers. He looked at my passport picture, then at me, then back at my papers. He eventually verified my identity, and I moved on. Like the friend I know who once .

Oh please pray for me, Reader. Maybe I am not ready for what I want to say. It got buried under other books in my apartment.